I'd done a version of this idea before...I might put it up, just so you can compare the two, see which you like better. But I like the idea of this one. I almost feel like we missed out on part of Anakin's story when we didn't get to see his reunion with all he loved in RotJ, but hey. Can't have everything.

Let me know how you like it!

I don't own anything...it's all George Lucas.

Sidious

He had never been afraid. Angry, yes. Furious, yes. Embarrassed, ashamed, irritated. Cheerful. Exultant. A whole range of emotions Jedi were never supposed to feel. But never afraid. Until now. Now he was terrified.

He was alone. Wandering for what already felt like forever in complete and total darkness. His breathing was labored, and his entire body ached. He pushed himself onward, unwilling to sit and rest, mostly because there was nothing to sit on. Strange noises permeated occasionally out of the darkness, making him shudder and set to peering once again through the pitch, straining to see nothing and everything.

He wondered: was this his eternal punishment? To wander forever, afraid and alone, in darkness? He supposed, somewhere in his lucid mind, that he deserved it. He felt guilty, ashamed at the part of him that wanted so much more. There was a part of him that was screaming for forgiveness, for the light and to be held again in love and friendship. He had missed it more than he had ever thought possible in the long twenty years as Sith Lord.

He stumbled against something and dropped to his knees, clutching for the object. It was the first sign of something inhabiting this sphere other than himself, and he was panting, scrambling to find it, to cling to it, to never let it go….he recoiled as his fingers touched wrinkled, melted skin and coarse, rough cloth. He rocked back on his heels, the blood pounding in his ears.

"Hello?" he finally voiced. It was the first time he had attempted speech for hours, days, weeks, maybe.

"Lord Vader."

NO!

He staggered to his feet, horrified, shuddering, head swinging back and forth, trying to pinpoint the voice. Cold fingers brushed his arm, and he flung himself back, a scream ripping from his throat.

"No!"

"My boy." the voice was old and feeble, but underlain with a menace that set his hair on end and constricted his heart.

"You're dead. I killed you myself. I killed you." he was babbling, praying, denying it all, but still the voice from the chilling darkness.

"As are you, my boy. We die together, as we lived. We will exist together, for eternity, here in the Force. Come to me, Lord Vader. Find rest in the darkness."

"I won't. I can't. You…you have no power here. The Force…"
"We are the Force, Darth Vader. We have all power." A low, hoarse, cold laugh. A hand closed on his wrist, and he pulled free, stumbling back, horrified, his mouth working. Was it possible? Was this his fate? To spend eternity with the demon who had haunted him for the past twenty years?

"That's not possible." The words came strong, and he both surprised and strengthened himself with them. "This isn't possible. I will not stay here, with you. I will not!"

"You have little choice in the matter, Lord Vader." A faint, agonized scream in the distance, a chill of wind. He felt despair return, and his knees buckled. A presence in front of him, a wrinkled, sickening, soft hand on his head. "Together, we will remember. Together we will…"

He jerked away. No. There had to be a way out. There had to be a way. Please! Help me. Force, help me. Don't let him have me!

"Lord Vader."

"My name is not Vader!" He stood again, and it was an excruciating effort, but somehow he was standing, facing the menace. "My name is Anakin Skywalker. And you have no power over me."

It was as if the light had suddenly broken through. The demon shrieked, and he could sense it more than see as it writhed, twisting, fading away as if it had never been. The darkness was receding, brightening, swirling all around him as if it too was in pain, desperate to get away from that name. Or was it just there? He strained to see, and then suddenly shrank back, squeezed his eyes shut against the brilliance. But then he was opening them again, shielding his eyes with a hand, desperate to drink in the warmth and light but unable to bear the light.

And then a hand closed on his wrist, but it was warm and firm and he felt the warmth envelop him, and gasped with the relief. He blinked up into the face that seemed so far above him and realized that he was down on his knees again. Tears obscured his vision as recognition came.

Review! TBC...